


Into the Trees

by resqueln



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 19:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3781786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/resqueln/pseuds/resqueln
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lost in a forest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Trees

He runs through the forest. He’s been running for hours, the roots and needles of the pine trees cutting his bare feet as he stumbles over roots and rocks. He doesn’t know who he is or how he came to be here, only that he has to run. To keep running. To find something.

 _The Stargate_ , his mind supplies uselessly. He doesn’t know what that is, only that he will know it when he sees it. There are faces in his mind: two men and a woman, eyes wide with terror. He has a memory of one – the woman – calling to him in panic and then nothing.

He hopes they are okay, wherever, whoever they are.

The forest seems never-ending. A root catches his foot and he falls, a sickening give in his ankle as his leg crumples under him. And then he’s falling, turning over and over as the earth gives way to an embankment, twigs and rocks and mud falling with him.

When he comes to, he can hear voices and the sound of people moving through the undergrowth ahead. He pulls himself upward and creeps forward, trying to walk on his bleeding feet. His legs give out after only a little way and he falls, catching himself on the trunk of a tree, hands scraping against the rough bark.

There’s a man up ahead, a box in his broad hand. It's the man from his memories. Suddenly, the man looks up and he jerks back, fear filling him as he realises he is spotted. The man’s eye are the same colour as the light from the circle of light in his memory, wide and blue and panicked as he gapes.

“Sheppard?!”

His hold on the trunk falters and suddenly the ground is rushing to meet him. Strong arms catch him, the man sinking under his weight until they are both sprawled on the forest floor.

“He’s over here!” the man is shouting and suddenly there are calls and the sound of people breaking through the forest towards them. “John? Are you okay? Oh God look at your hands – look at your _feet_ \- “

People burst through the undergrowth, amongst them the other man and the woman from his memories. The three of them are here, safe. He can relax.

He lets himself slip away.

**Author's Note:**

> *Gnaws fingers nervously* I'm never too sure about this snippet business. 
> 
> This was always meant to be the start of something longer but the rest of the story never turned up. Like buses, three others turned up in its place, none of them going in the right direction. Eventually I decided to just exorcise it from my WIP folder.
> 
> I don't know if this works as a stand alone. Blanket permission if anyone wants to take this on as a beginning for something longer, so long as you let me know so I can read it! :)


End file.
